Participant Info

Species

Viola nuttallii

Family

Violaceae

CommonName

Nuttall’s violet

Presence

maybe

Status

native

EarliestDate

1958

LatestDate

1958

Ecosystem

montane

Geobotanical

SSanjuans

Counties

Rio Grande

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. From the Watershed, there is only one collection labeled Viola nuttallii, found in a meadow on Park Creek where it flows into Mineral Co (1958). This record is credible since in Colorado there are collections from both east and west of the Watershed. Also Allred et al. (2020) record it from Rio Arriba Co (but no farther down the Rio Grande drainage). Still, there have been no observation of Nuttall's violet from the Watershed since 1958. It ranges up the Rockies and west Great Plains to the Canadian border. Note that V. praemorsa and V. vallicola, once thought to be varieties of V. nuttallii, now are considered valid species (Fabijan, et al. 1987). They are distinguished by ploidy levels and their features overlap (for instance, all three have yellow petals). In sum, it may be that all records of "Viola nuttallii" from west of the Continental Divide in Colorado are either V. praemorsa or V. vallicola. That leaves the Watershed in somewhat of a limbo. BONAP, for instance, shows the presence of none of these three species in the Watershed.

Annotation